Smart secrets from women CEOs

Barbara Corcoran, Bobbi Brown, Muriel Siebert and other high-profile female entrepreneurs talk frankly about what it takes to succeed.

Alexandra Lebenthal's role model was a Wall Street pioneer. As a young girl growing up in the 1960s, she often visited her grandmother, Sayra Fischer Lebenthal, at the family's municipal-bond firm in Lower Manhattan.

"The office was in the financial district, overlooking New York Harbor," recalls Lebenthal, who became president of the family's Lebenthal & Co. at 31 and now, at 42, is starting up a new retail-brokerage venture at Israel Discount Bank of New York. "I remember my grandmother sitting at this desk, with the Statue of Liberty behind her. That's pretty strong imagery for a 4-year-old girl to have."

And an unusual one. Many female business owners credit their hard-working fathers as sources of inspiration. But few can say they were exposed to successful female business leaders in their early years. Even today, many women proprietors lack female role models.